I
usually go with a theme for my Sunday Selections and this week I'll show you some of the roses I used to grow in my previous home. All of these were in pots, so were easy to move when I gave them all to the community garden. There'll be no captions, just pictures:

It's possible you've seen these before, and I've just realised my blog name isn't on them.

Friday, July 29, 2016

On Wednesdays, assorted
people have been taking monthly turns at putting up a selection of words which
is called “Words for Wednesday”.

We have taken over this
meme from Delores, who had been having computer problems.

This month the meme
continues here, with words supplied Olga Gadim.

Essentially the aim is
to encourage us to write.

Each week we are given a
choice of prompts: which can be words, phrases, music or images.What we do with those prompts is up to
us:a short story, prose, a song, a
poem, or treating them with ignore...

Some of us put our
creation in comments on the post, and others post on their own blog.We would really like it if as many people as
possible joined in with this fun meme.

If you are posting on
your own blog - let us know so that we can come along and read your masterpiece.

I’m hopeless at poetry
so I always do a story.

It’s a fun challenge…why
not join in?

This week's words are:

1. someone

2. hopscotch

3. days

4. hotter

5. hoaxer

6. lonely

this painting:

and this phrase: "I was just wondering if you could solve a little argument?"

Here is my short story:

As the days got hotter, tempers grew shorter and often flared over the silliest things.It began with a simple conversation, but soon their game was forgotten as Jimmy yelled at Tom, "You're just a big hoaxer! You don't know what you're talking about!"Tom pushed at Jimmy and yelled back,"I do so too know! Turtles and tortoises are the same! My grandpa said so!"The girls backed away from the nearby hopscotch squares and Helen said to Kate, "Go and get someone, one of the teachers."Wendy said to Helen, "I bet they get sent to the lonely corners."Kate ran off and was soon back with Mrs Goodwin, who grabbed the collar of each of the boys, who were just beginning to hit each other, and marched them into the cool of the library room."Now which of you is going to tell me what this is about?" she asked. Both boys yelled at once, something about Grandpas, turtles and tortoises, the yelling so muddled Mrs Goodwin couldn't make sense of it.She shushed both boys and led them to the teacher's lounge where the science teacher, Mr Fairweather, was sipping an iced coffee. "Mr Fairweather," Mrs Goodwin began, " I was just wondering if you could solve a little argument?""Come on in boys," said Mr Fairweather. "What is the subject of this argument?"Tom said, "My Grandpa told me tortoises and turtles are the same. He said they both have hard shells and live in water. Jimmy said he's wrong. He said my Grandpa is wrong!""I see," said Mr Fairweather. "Well, he is partly right, but also partly wrong. I'll explain. They do both live in water and have hard shells, they can also come onto land for a short while, that is they can breathe air too. There is one major difference. Here, come and look at this painting in the book I've been reading. Look closely, what do you see?"

Both boys said they couldn't see any difference. "Look at their feet, these animals have claws. They are tortoises. Turtles have flippers for swimming. There's a picture a few pages further."Their argument was forgotten as quickly as it started, in the cool of the teacher's lounge, they sat at a table and read parts of the book while looking at the pictures. "I'll have to tell Grandpa," said Tom.

Thursday, July 28, 2016

from A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness:" These days vampires gravitated towards particle accelerators, projects to decode the genome, and molecular biology. Once they had flocked to alchemy, anatomy and electricity. If it went bang, involved blood, or promised to unlock the secrets of the universe, there was sure to be a vampire around."'Red Reddington' (The Blacklist): "never underestimate the power of glitter"'Red': "I don't need visas, passports, travel documents. give me a bug-out bag and fifteen seconds and I'm on my way to anywhere in the world."ME: wouldn't that be great? Pick up the phone, say 'I need to travel' and a car pulls up ready to take you to your own private jet to anywhere. Just like on TV.from Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor:"Now I've seen everything," she thought. 'The 'Shadows That Live' doing chicken impressions."from Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor:"Humans have gotten glimpses of things over time," he'd said. "Just enough to make the rest up. It's all been a quilt of fairy tales with a patch here and there of truth."Today's Thought:Last night I watched Today Tonight, our local current affairs program and they featured painkillers and how easy it is to become addicted to them. They mentioned Nurofen Plus, and Panadeine. Then they went to an ad break. What were they advertising? Nurofen Plus. and a little later in the same break, Voltaren, also a pain killer with anti-inflammatory properties.Is it only me that thinks that was a little inappropriate? Just like when they show articles on healthy eating and the importance of consuming much more fruits and vegetables, then showing advertisements for MacDonald's burger meals.

In other news, I may have mentioned, last year, that my dentist was taking time off to have a baby. She had a little boy and is now back at work. I saw her several weeks ago for a check up, then a small filling, I'm pretty sure I mentioned this a while ago, and again this npast Tuesday to prepare a molar for a crown. The tooth was cracked and the filling was too, so a new crown is to prevent it becoming infected and/or breaking up and crumbling away.I now have a temporary crown in place, with the permanent one being fitted in two weeks.Prior to all this work, I'd last seen Dr S in July and August of 2015 to have a couple of crowns fitted on my front teeth, where I'd had off and on toothache for years. I'd had root canal treatments on them, so they were now dead and badly discoloured.I'm happy to say that since the 2015 visits, I have not had any toothache at all.

A FULL YEAR WITH NO TOOTHACHE!!

This is after having multiple episodes of pain and infections resulting in many root canals over the last thirty years. You've heard me tell the story -I go to the dentist, he says 'I can't see any reason for your pain'- and sends me home, then the tooth becomes a raging inferno and so on and so on.

It's really nice to have a dentist that knows my teeth, knows me, and works up a treatment plan, with costs, for the receptionist to print out, so I can take it home and start saving for the work. Dr S indicates which of the teeth needs to be done first and that's the cost I start putting money aside for.

I usually go with a
theme for my Sunday Selections and this week we're going for a walk.

Along a clifftop.

I read about a coastal boardwalk down along the southern area, from Marino to Hallett Cove, maybe a little further in either direction, total distance approximately 7kms, I think.

I didn't walk the entire distance, I quit about halfway along.

When you view these images, you'll see why. This is not the easy stroll I imagined.

if you're afraid of heights, I wouldn't recommend this.

look at those rocks!

walking from the road to the boardwalk, I saw these red hot pokers in someone's garden.

crashing waves far below.

some areas have little vegetation and you can see just how steep most of the boardwalk is.

more of the cliff and the waves.

down one side and up the other, I took it very slowly, being as unfit as I am, I was passed by several much younger people and also by an elderly gentleman who strode along quite quickly.He possibly lives in the area and has been walking this trail a long time.

some of the trail is stepped pathway, which looks easy, but the risers are a little higher than they look; my thighs got quite a workout hauling me up and down the steps.

another look down at the waves.

there are seats along the way, not many, but I managed to pass three and sit on each one to rest a bit.

looking back up to where I'd just been.

rocks and waves again. The view was so amazing, the day sunny, a nice breeze was blowing. I felt like my face might be getting sunburned in spite of the sunscreen, but it didn't.When I go back, and I WILL go back, I'll start at the northern end and walk away from the sun.

the risers don't look high, but they are about 30-35cm in some places and after a while I copied the elderly gentleman who'd passed me earlier, and used the goat track alongside the steps. It was much easier going.

another cliff view.

down, down, down, down, almost to the bottom, then across a narrow gully and up the other side.

see that triangular rock dead centre?

it was covered in birds, cormorants I think.

looking at most of these, you might think it is an isolated area, far from civilisation,

but there are houses and people aplenty. The houses you see here are on the westernmost street so no homes can be built in front of them to spoil their view. I took this standing on the boardwalk with the cliff edge right behind me. The green area isn't large, off to the left of the photo, the street curves around closer to the cliff.There is no beach at the bottom, just rocks, waves and deep water.